Best Hearthstone Decks for the Start of September Ranked Season Over at Castle Nathria

Another week gone, and we've entered a new monthly Ranked Season of Hearthstone. It's somewhat unfortunate that this Season is currently looking a lot like last Season: there aren't many new decks being tried out on the ladder, and most of the decks that were already figured out have pretty much been refined. Luckily, we have news from the front that the last round of nerfs were so "popular" that Blizzard has decided to do an encore.

So, how does the meta stand in a pre-pre-Balance Patch world? Again, it looks a lot like the pre-pre-pre-Balance Patch meta (also known as the post-Balance Patch meta, seeing as how it came after the pre-post-Balance Patch meta). Most of the decks that were strong then are strong now, and the decks that were weak then are not played now. What are those decks? Let's take a look.

The Most Popular Standard Decks

According to HSReplay, there are about seven decks with a clear high play rate (with each one taking up over 5% of the total representation): Ramp Druid, Spooky Mage, Aggro Druid, Edwin Rogue, Imp Warlock, Big Spell Mage, and Quest Priest. This, for the most part, is the Standard meta. It's highly likely that many of these decks will receive some sort of a nerf with the coming balance changes, but we're stuck with them for now.

Demon Hunter

Demon Hunter is seeing very little play, outside of experimental Relic decks. Aggro DH has been mostly wiped out, and there's nothing else to see here.

Relic decks are popular, we guess, because players keep trying to see if those buffs have made the deck good yet. There's very little real power in the deck; its only good matchup is Quest Priest, and it's dreadful to play against Edwin Rogue.

Relic

Druid

Druid is currently cooking with gas, boasting two of the best decks in the meta.

Ramp Druid is the most popular deck, and for good reason: playing with 20 Mana makes it very hard for any other deck to beat it in the late game. Ramp Druid is very strong against slower decks like Spooky Mage and Quest Priest. Due to the deck's weakness to aggression, some classes experimented with aggro decks but none of them hold a candle to our next contender.

Aggro Druid continues to perpetrate heinous Druid-on-Druid crimes against Ramp Druid, and has proven itself to be the best fastest deck. Aggro Druid has a chance against most decks, but has one glaring weakness: Mage and Quest Priest. Two glaring weaknesses.

Ramp

Aggro

Hunter

Hunter has a couple of decks visible at higher ranks: Quest and Beast.

Quest Hunter is the most popular Hunter deck, thanks to the consistency of the Quest and its good matchup against Mage. Turns out freezing minions is hard to do when there's no minions to freeze.

Speaking of minions to freeze, Beast Hunter is one of the few decks with a chance against Edwin Rogue, and it ain't too shabby against Aggro Druid, neither.

Face Hunter is popular at lower ranks, but dwindles higher up the ladder.

Quest

Beast

Mage

Mage joins Druid as the only class with two decks in the top seven in play rate (arbitrary cut-offs, anyone?). While Druid's decks are a Jekyll-and-Hyde of aggression and ramp, both Mage decks are slow and controlling.

Spooky Mage remains the most popular Mage deck. It has an even matchup spread, faring decently against Edwin Rogue while picking clean the carcasses of minion dependent decks like Aggro Druid. However, queuing into Ramp Druid can be quite (what's the word again?) scary.

Big Spell Mage is interesting, and is starting to see some growth at Spooky Mage's expense. While still not favored, it picks up crucial points in the Ramp Druid matchup and remains strong against minion-dependent decks. As an added bonus, Big Spell Mage fits perfectly into the new world of Hearthstone, with pay-to-win cards like Runestone of the Archmage and Balinda Runestonehearth.

Spooky

Big Spell

Paladin

Paladin really doesn't have a place in this meta, but if you're dead set on playing the class you could do a lot worse than an off-meta Buff Paladin that does a lot with Dragons and Service Bell. Is this the meta-breaker we've all been waiting for? Probably not, but it's nice to dream.

Dragon

Priest

Priest has seen very little movement in the past week. Quest Priest remains the class's only deck with a high level of play, to the detriment of experimental Naga and Boon decks.

Quest Priest is still a solid way to farm Edwin Rogue, and can also win versus Aggro Druid. However, Ramp Druid is the disaster matchup for the deck and it also does poorly against Mage.

Naga/Boon Priest decks have their defenders, and there are players finding success with Serpent Wig shenanigans and Boon of the Ascended combos. They're a good one-two punch that can find ways to win against almost every currently popular deck. It's those Mage decks you've got to be worried about.

Quest

Naga/Boon

Rogue

Rogue is very close to a one-deck class. Edwin Rogue is love, Edwin Rogue is life.

The buffed Edwin, Defias Kingpin Rogue remains very powerful. It gets out a lot of stats and damage early in the game and is capable of beating anybody if played well. It boasts a high win rate despite the rise of decks that counter it, because it's just that good. When the Boogeyman goes to bed, he checks his closet for Edwin Rogue.

Thief Rogue, with Tess and everything, has seen a small burst in popularity. Mine Rogue and other combo decks have fallen out of favor.

Edwinning

Thief

Shaman

Evolve/Control remains the main way to main Shamain (STET). The deck is fine. It does OK against Implock, but dips below 50% in virtually every other matchup. No queue is an autolose, but you're rarely favored. Playing it is the Hearthstone equivalent of walking to school, uphill both ways. In fifty years, you'll be able to tell your grandchildren that you got to Legend with Evolve Shaman. They won't believe you, but maybe they'll be laughing so hard that they forget to turn off your life support.

Evolve/Control

Warlock

There's little change with Warlock, beyond the refining of Implock. While Curse Hybrids have won the popularity battle, straight-up Zoo-style Implock has its defenders. The deck does well against Ramp Druid, and now we've run out of nice things to say about it.

Curse Imps

Zoo Imps

Warrior

Boy, it's a good thing Paladin exists. [EDITOR'S NOTE: At the point of publishing we were able to confirm a faint essence of something that resembles the Light.] Warrior is seeing very little play and very little success right now, but there's actually maybe hopefully some small tiny bit of sunshine in the form of Enrage Warrior. It's kinda good against Ramp Druid and, if you squint really hard, it's not so bad against Mage decks and Implock. The one thing holding Warrior back is its bad matchups against Edwin Rogue, Priest, and Hunter. Just that one thing.

Enrage

What decks are you playing in the pre-pre-nerf meta? Let us know in the comments!